


A Twist in Time

by ThatTurquoiseGirl (orphan_account)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Gen, Time Travel, first year
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-16 20:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9288194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ThatTurquoiseGirl
Summary: The war was won, the side of light winning — but the cost too high. Enemies and friends alike, dead. A battlefield strewn with dead bodies, not choosy of whom. But two survive. Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass. Determined to change the future, they time travel back to their first year at Hogwarts. Harry, to ensure a brighter outcome and save his friends, and Daphne to bring her fellow Slytherins on the right path. AU. First year.





	1. Time travel

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Brilliant green light shot out of the wand, speeding itself towards its victim the moment it left the wooden wand. It wasn't alone; it was amongst the many other spells flying from one side to the other. Yet it was distinct amongst them, hauntingly beautiful in a way of its own. A spell of murder, an incarnation of death itself. So bright, it was ironic. 

A raven haired 21 year old man threw himself to one side, hitting a stack of crates, and dodging an incoming crucio. He could barely breathe, but failing now would be worse than just failing himself. It would be failing all those who had died for him, to see the day the dark lord was defeated. He couldn't let that happen. He would win, even if every bone in his body broke.

The killing spell he had incited a moment ago hit its mark. A blood-curling scream was heard, chilling his bones. It was barely human. 

For a second all was still; then, with little grace, a body fell to the floor. Just another corpse littering the metaphorical ground.

Harry watched on emotionlessly, his eyes hard. The victory left a bitter taste in his mouth. He didn't care that he was now a murderer, now at the same level as the one he had killed. It was the price. So many gone, and what for? For him to kill Voldemort? For Voldemort to die? For him to live? Was the value of one life more than the hundreds lost?

He shifted his weight to his left foot, his eyes not leaving the corpse of his greatest foe. His right leg felt broken, and breathing was a task. He could feel his broken ribs push into his stomach, and the blood soaked T-shirt against his chest. 

Numbness was all he could feel. Happiness was a feeling he had long forgotten. He didn't know when. Maybe when Ginny was murdered by Nagini. Maybe when Hermione was killed by Lucius Malfoy. Maybe when Ron was defeated by Nott. Probably the moment he had realised what the world really was—just a bloody battlefield. 

All he could do was blame his incompetence. All he had ever known were gone; friends, enemies and just those whom he had known alike. All, who had died to defeat one common enemy, all who had united just for a better future, gone.

The true meaning of death felt heavy on his shoulders.

"Ha-Harry."

One girl survived, though.

Sending one last glance towards the corpse of his greatest foe, Harry ran towards the speaker, limping. 

The sight of his friend sent pain through his body—mainly his heart. 

Sprawled on the floor, leg twisted at an awkward angle, and clothes soaked in blood, he could see she was living on barely a thread. 

Nearby her was the corpse of Bellatrix Lestrange. Her eyes free of their crazy glint, she didn't seem as evil as she was. She seemed like just another normal woman. Like Mrs. Weasley, the woman she had killed. 

It didn’t matter anymore. The last death-eater, dead. After months of hiding out at Godric’s Hollow, had they encountered the two. A duel had ensured, and they had won. Scarcely.

Beside her, Harry kneeled down on one knee, ignoring the shooting pain in his foot.

"Daphne! Are you-"

"Don't bother asking, Harry. You know the answer." She said, a glad smile on her lips, tinged with bitterness. Her body visibly shivered, and after putting a hand on her forehead, it was confirmed she had a fever.

Harry nodded mutely. He did know.

He couldn't help but admire her beauty. Bloodied and broken, barely alive, and yet still she could smile. Her interior was tougher than a dragon's hide. Nothing had managed to tear her apart. She was dainty enough in appearance, with soft yet regal features, bright blue eyes and chocolate brown hair. In the end, though, she was stronger than him. 

Harry envied her. He wished he could have the same strength as her.

"You did it. You-you finally killed him." Her voice was croaky and forced. Her breathing was ragged, and her efforts to fight the pain were in plain view. A huge gash stretched from her chin to her forehead, and her hair was matted with blood.

"It doesn't matter. Everybody is dead."

Harry knew how hollow his voice must've sounded, but he didn't bother trying to hide it. He was too tired of acting a hero. As the perfect golden boy, a person he had never really been.

He took in a deep breath before continuing. Throbbing pain pulsed through his ribs.

"There's only one way now."

Daphne's eyes widened, watching him take out a golden pocket-watch, realising what he meant.

"N-no, Harry...it's too da-dangerous..."

Harry looked at her, and she could see the desperation in his eyes.

"It's my last card, Daphne. My chance to make everything right, my chance to save everybody."

Daphne seemed to be having an internal battle with herself. Harry was fed up with battles.

"Ha-Harry. This isn't a joke. What we wa-want to do is to cre-create a spasm in time by killing ourselves, using the magical e-energy released to oh-overload the single-"

She coughed again. More blood. She batted his hand away and continued. 

"- most powerful time turner in ex-existence,” Harry gently covered her mouth. She glared at him. 

“Which can send us a week back at the very most, to send us ten years in the past. Then expect our souls to be absorbed by our bodies of that time due to a similar magical structure, which’ll result in us staying in that time period since our souls would be one with our body. And so we can't return back to this time, and have a new chance.” Harry smiled. "Yeah. I'm a reckless Gryffindor, remember?"

Daphne didn't laugh and twisted her head. Harry removed his hand.

"Harry. There’s le-less that one in a million chances of this wo-working. If it fails, our souls will be ri-ripped apart, and we could be stuck in a he-hellish limbo of eternal pain for the rest of eternity."

He squeezed her hand. "It doesn't matter. I'll be fine."

She tried to scowl, but winced in pain instead. "We'll be fine."

Harry sighed. He didn't want to drag Daphne in his plan-in their plan. She had suffered more than she deserved.

Then again, in this war, who hadn't?

"Fine. We'll be fine."

She smiled again.

"Okay. Re-remember, if this does work, our souls will be” Harry rolled his eyes. He hadn't felt this elated in years. “Automatically attracted to our body of that time, and so we won't meet immediately. Also, we’ll have to be careful. We can't change anything too severely, or the fabric of time will be ripped apart. We've gone over this plan a hundred times, Daphne.”

Hermione had made sure of it, and formulated it. When had been alive, over seven months ago, that is. It had been her idea, fined by him and others.

He knew that the calculations were perfect; the magical energy released by the body would be directed into the time-turner through a complex containment spell which would be said before his-their death, and finally, if everything worked out, their soul's would be absorbed by their bodies of that time. It had a thousand ifs and buts-but it was their only hope.

Hope. A thing in which he had lost belief in ages ago.

Daphne didn't say a word more. She knew she was too weak. 

Harry started inciting the spell. Once it was done, he and Daphne locked eyes.

"You were a great friend, Daphne. It was a honour fighting beside you."

She smiled one last time. "Same here."

Harry adjusted the time-turner to the perfect time, touching Daphne's hand at the same time. He had his wand pointed towards her, and she had hers towards him.

"Avada-"

He twisted it's knob, and the world beginning to spin. The newest and best feature of that time-turner was that the person would remain in his current time for a few minutes, for lots of energy was used up in time-travelling. It was certainly were helpful for them.

They finished the spell in one voice, the jet of green coming out at the same time.

"-Kedavra."

As the Boy-Who-Lived and Daphne Greengrass fell to ground lifeless, a golden arc expanded, engulfing the two of them, before all was black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, only this chapter is going to be angsty. The others will be much lighter. So...please review!!


	2. Back to the past

Once his consciousness had returned, Harry hadn't even bothered to open his eyes. The hard surface beneath his back that could barely be called a mattress, the dusty smell tingling his nose, could belong to only one place. His little room beneath the staircase. That meant only one thing; their plan had worked.

He simply lay like that for awhile, relishing the peace and the wonderful feeling that had settled over him. Happiness, maybe? He couldn't say. He was so accustomed to grief, anger, responsibility that the simple pleasures of life were hard to recognise.

It took a few moments for it to hit him; Daphne. The moment her name came to mind, he began to worry. What if she wasn't alright? What if it had only worked for him?

_ She's fine, absolutely fine,  _ he told himself, pushing those thoughts aside. As Daphne had said, worrying was of no use. There wasn't any way he could determine if she was fine or not until the year began. He would just have to believe she was fine, and wish that it was true.

Trying to avert his attention somewhere else, his mind wandered to the time-travelling plan. Now that it had worked, and he could truly assess it neutrally, he realised how lucky they truly were.

It hadn’t actually been made to be used in the first place. Just a backup plan, and a diversion from the horrors of the war, that was all. Nevertheless, it had been properly planned out by one of the brightest witches of his age, Hermione Granger. He couldn't help wonder what she would've said if she found out they had used it. Probably a whack on the head with the heaviest book she had.

The basis had been permanent time travel. It's inspiration had came from Luna, after she had found an article hypothesising what time travel held.

A little thought and Hermione had released that it held more potential than being just a hypothesis.

Hermione, Astoria, Draco and anybody who was half-decent at maths had spent days calculating how much energy would be required for such. Apparently, the energy released by the killing spell, if properly contained and rebounded, was the exact amount needed. Another reason why it wasn't meant to be used; it involved murder.

The bigger problem had been as to how to make the soul remain in the past. If the same person, one from the future and one from the past, met, the outcomes would be disastrous. The fabric of spacetime could even be ripped apart, which wouldn't be very pleasant.

The answer lay in the soul, unearthed by Hermione. If two ‘copies’ of the soul, that were exactly the same, then they would merge and the more powerful one would become prominent. That is, in context with Harry, future Harry’s soul and past Harry’s soul would merge, and future Harry's personality would dominate, while past Harry's would fade away. It was a little disturbing that young him was gone, but he ignored that fact.

Even so, the variables were innumerable. If too much energy had been provided, their souls would have been ripped to shreds and dissipated as energy; if too little energy had been provided, they could've been stuck in the limbo Daphne had been talking about. If they had died too early, the energy would have been lost before it could have been absorbed by the time-turner, and they would've simply died. If the reboundment spell had been even a bit weak, the energy would've escaped, again leaving them to just die.

He thanked his lucky stars that for once, they actually were lucky.

Finally, he bothered to open his eyes. The room was dark, and he couldn't see anything. He didn't care. There wasn't much to look at.

The next step was moving, which turned out to be much harder than he had thought. His body didn't move as he wanted it to; whilst standing up, he tripped over his own foot and fell face-flat. It would take some time getting used to his smaller body.

“What’re you doing in there, boy? Get out now, breakfast won’t make itself,” shrieked his aunt, rapping at the wooden door.

Harry smiled. Even the Dursley’s couldn't ruin his mood.

* * *

Unlike her friend, the moment Daphne managed to conjure a string of thoughts, her eyes flew open and she jolted up. A yelp escaped her lips, as her neck went too far and she sprained her neck.

She seemed to be sitting on her bed, in her bedroom. Her body seemed pretty intact, and apart from her stinging neck, she wasn't feeling any pain. That meant one thing; they  _ weren't  _ stuck in store for endless pain and suffering. (She had already assumed that Harry was fine, for if she was fine, so was Harry)

She breathed a sigh of relief.

She leaned forwards, and immediately fell on the bed. She had put too much strength into the action. She slowly got up, putting the least strength she could, and saw her reflection in the mirror kept by her wardrobe.

Her body couldn't be older than 10 or 11 years old. That meant they had yet to start their first year at Hogwarts. The calculations had been precise to the last decimal. 

It was strange to look around, sitting in her room with not a worry in the world. But she knew there could be repercussions; nobody had ever managed such a feat, and they had no idea what side-effects lay ahead. She resolved to do as much research as possible on time-travel.

The door opened, and her little sister peeked in. “Daphne, mum is saying that breakfast is ready, so if you're hungry come downstairs and eat, okay?”

For a moment, Daphne was blinded by the image of Astoria lying on the ground, bleeding, begging for help, glassy eyed and…

She took a deep breath.

“Ye-yeah. Coming.”

Barely able to stand, she took another look at her reflection. The past be damned; she wasn’t going to let it ruin the future that lay ahead of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! 21 kudos, 8 bookmarks, 7 comments! You guys are totally amazing! Sorry for the time I took to update, I was a little busy with my other fics. :-) 
> 
> By the way, this story is also on my fan fiction account, Sarite, but I wouldn't suggest reading it. I'm rewriting it here in a much better manner.
> 
> So...please comment! The more comments, the quicker I'll update! ;-)


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